How a state program for young hunters helped quell Port Mansfield’s deer problem

RAYMONDVILLE, Texas – Working with Willacy County Navigation District, the Texas Youth Hunting Program has helped quell the once sizable deer population in the Port Mansfield area.

The Texas Youth Hunting Program, administered by Texas Parks & Wildlife, helps teach young people how to hunt responsibly, with safety to the fore. 

“We’re helping Fort Mansfield. They were having a little trouble with the deer population inside the city limits,” explained TYHP organizer Gabe Lozano, III, of Corpus Christi.

“The deer were eating too much corn that the people were taking out and they were beginning to founder, which means their hooves start growing up. And they had lost their wild nature. They were no longer grazing. They were just waiting for corn. They were waiting for the candy all the time.”

Founder, also known as laminitis, is a condition that causes a deer’s hooves to grow beyond normal, resulting in long hooves. It occurs when the sensitive tissue that connects the hoof wall to the pedal bone, called the laminae, is damaged. This can happen for a number of reasons, including diet. A sudden change in diet to high-carb, high-starch, or high-protein foods, especially corn, can cause a nutritional imbalance. This can lead to a buildup of acid in the deer’s system.

Lozano said TYHP and the navigation district brought in the Texas Animal Commission to address Port Mansfield’s deer problem. 

“Today, people cannot bring corn anymore and feed the animals here in Willacy County, because they know it’s hurting the animals’ grazing. It’s hurting what they’re doing. You can drive out there now, and they’re not all standing around the pad. They’re in the fields eating. Instead of them sitting around the pad, waiting and getting fat, they’re out grazing again.”

In addition to helping address Port Mansfield’s deer issue, young people are being trained how to become responsible hunters, Lozano said. “So, these kids get to take it home and eat what they harvest,” he explained. 

TYHP are doing four deer hunts at Port Mansfield this year, Lozano said. One of them concluded this weekend. The next will take place in January. 

“With the help of the State of Texas, we have a $3 million liability insurance plan, which covers the ranches that these kids are hunting on, that these youth are hunting on. This allows the local ranches a chance to let these kids learn to hunt, which means what? (It means) we’re going to have a whole new generation of hunters.”

In a podcast with Ron Whitlock Reports, Gabe Lozano, III, discussed the Texas Youth Hunting Program and the need for safety in hunting. Here is the podcast:

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